I don’t even care to imagine what Joe Dumars is thinking, but I encourage him to continue thinking. There’s some complaints here that the Raptors aren’t getting any picks in the deal, and I say that’s just sweetener on top of a freshly baked muffin – you don’t really need it, but I’m sure we’ll get something if this does go through. Masai Ujiri has already unloaded Bargnani for more than anyone thought conceivable, but if he manages to execute this trade, he will have left the organization at a crossroads.

Villanueva and Stuckey make around $17 million in 2013-14, while Gay is at $18 million, followed by a $19 million option the following year. Once Stuckey and Villanueva come off the books, it would result in approximately $25 million in cap space for next summer. Keep in mind that next year’s draft is considered the best in years, with Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker featuring as headliners. I have no idea whether Ujiri plans to tank (that’s why there’s a poll on the site right now regarding this), but if he does, now would be the time.

I’m trying to think of a scenario where if this trade is executed, how the Raptors could put Charlie V out there and say with a straight face that they’re trying to win. It’s almost certain that a trade like this implies tanking, unless he turns around and flips these two for something else in the fall.

As awful as next season might be if this goes through, the season would have the potential to emulate the Spurs 1996-97 campaign when they went 20-62 and grabbed Tim Duncan. The draft is a crap-shoot at best, but you got to be in it to win it. And this would definitely put the Raptors in it.

You think there’s a better chance that Gay and DeRozan will become good enough to make the Raptors a contender than of the team tanking and landing one of the 5 or 6 possible elite players that will be coming out in 2014?

The sheer amount of teams that are adopting this strategy is going to be staggering, and you can make a case that the Raptors will have significant competition for even a top seven pick, which might dissuade Ujiri from pursuing this option. At the same time, Ujiri has to be realistic as to what the already-tarnished image of Toronto would be after another horrid season, and what kind of free-agent that cap-space would attract. Does it make sense to make-do with what you have in Gay, or do we hit the reset button again, and risk doing it for nothing if the lottery balls are unkind?

Decisions, decisions, aren’t they what make life hard?

Update:

As I speculated earlier, told Raptors immediately said good job, good effort to low-ball Gay offer from Det No plans to move him for nothing